Experimental Physics Syllabus: 2003

Experimental Physics – PHYS 2350 Spring 2006

Web site: http://www.rpi.edu/dept/phys/Courses/PHYS2350/

All of the specifics not listed below can be found on the web site.

Course lecturer and supervisor: Gary Adams, SC 1W15, x8406, email:

I will be available in SC3C14 during morning lab hours on Mon. and Thurs. or by appointment.

Graduate TA: Brian Moziak (grading, tutoring)

Undergraduate TA’s – ??????

- will be available during lab hours for assistance with experiments.

Course Objectives:

1) Gain experience in setting up and executing an experiment.

1. This will be judged from your lab. notebook.

2) Learn methods of data analysis, particularly experimental uncertainties (“errors”).

1. This will be judged from your written report.

3) Learn to write a research paper.

1. This will be judged from your written report.

4) Study some new physics.

Comments:

This course is very different from most others you have taken. It stresses independent work and motivation. To successfully complete an experiment it will be necessary to read the relevant materials before you come to the lab.

Text: Melissinos and Napolitano – This is a general reference. Read the entire book quickly, without learning the details.

Lab. Reference: Napolitano’s old class notes plus several electronic notes. You MUST study these before each experiment or you will not know what you are doing.

Class hours:

Lecture: TWF 12:00-12:50 Darrin 318

LaboratoryMon or Thurs8am-10:50 and after 2pm

SC3C14

 Lab partners will be assigned before the first lab.

 Although the official lab hours are 8-11 and 2-3, you should be prepared to work longer hours. You may work in the laboratory after-hours as long as you obey safety rules. A lab key will be made available in the Physics Office; it is available only during regular working hours.

 Student groups that are assigned to Monday lab hours have exclusive use for all hours on Monday and Tuesday. Student groups that are assigned to Thursday lab hours have exclusive use for hours on Thursday and Friday. Wednesday hours must be negotiated with the other group doing your experiment that week. For safety reasons you should never work in the lab alone.

 Your lab work will be carried out in groups. You must schedule your time so that all group members are present.

Course materials:

Laboratory notebooks: You will need two laboratory notebooks for recording and analyzing data. (You will use the second notebook while the first is being graded.) A robust 80-page spiral-bound quadrille ruled notebook or similar is satisfactory.

Recommended plotting and analysis software: MATLAB.You may use any software you choose, but the textbook and I give examples in MATLAB, a useful and popular computation, analysis, and plotting program. MATLAB is available for RPI Laptop systems from the RPI web page. Old versions of MATLAB are also adequate. Be aware that students before you have encountered grave problems using MAPLE for data analysis and fitting.

Spreadsheets are fine for some analysis and plotting but they can only do simple fitting (linear regression) so they are not adequate for all experiments.

Computer: It is a good idea for each group to have a "standard" RPI laptop computer in the laboratory. Laptops or dedicated computers are an integral part of several experiments.

Course structure:

The course consists of two related parts. I will give a few weeks of lectures on basic laboratory practice, safety, and experimental techniques, analysis techniques, and statistical analysis.

Experimental work will commence in the third week of classes. New experiments will be started every two weeks (see schedule). You will work in laboratory groups of two or three students. You will perform a total of five experiments. Each group will do a different set of assigned experiments. Write-ups are due at the start of a new experiment; they will be collected at noon on that day. Late reports will receive grade penalties.

Academic Honesty:

You are expected to collaborate on all aspects of this course. Collaboration means working with your partners: performing your share of the work, preparing properly so as not to disadvantage your partner, and discussing your ideas openly. You are permitted to discuss any aspect of your work with anyone, but what you hand in must be your own analysis and your writing. All work must be handed in individually. Partners must hand in separate and different write-ups and notebooks. Copying another person’s work, lab partner or otherwise, will result in a failing grade for the course.

Laboratory notebooks

Part of your grade will depend on the quality of your notebook entries. Your notes for a specific experiment should start with a statement of your goals and perhaps a short description of the steps you intend to carry out. (This should be done the night before you start a new experiment.) Notes should include a complete description of the apparatus with a physical and a logical sketch of the apparatus with components uniquely identified. You should then write down what you do as you do it. All measured parameters should be recorded with an estimated systematic uncertainty. You may assume that voltmeters, etc., are accurate to the smallest digit displayed. You should also include brief descriptions of your logical steps or thinking at each point. You can always choose to neglect extra information in your written report, but you can’t add information that you didn’t record in your notebook.

Formal write-up: You will hand in your notebook plus a formal write-up on paper. These will follow (approximately) the format of a paper for the Physical Review ( ). It is not necessary to follow their style but the section layout should be similar. Put citations in the text by number like this [2]. If you are a LATEX wizard then feel free to use the Phys. Rev. template but I’m not looking for things to look that polished. The total length should be no more than eight double-spaced pages and no less than four, including graphs, tables and citations. All graphs and tables should have captions, and each one should be referenced by number in the report. The approach should be as one would use for an original measurement. Each report should including a title, author (and the names of your lab partners), the date submitted, an abstract summarizing your results in less than 50 words (put final numbers with uncertainties here), and the text. The text should be written with the expectation that the reader is a fellow student in the class. The text should include the following sections:

Introduction – Only words. In a few paragraphs motivate the measurement and say what your experiment measured. Remember, you are writing this as if it is an original measurement. There is one exception: the magnetic moment experiment should be presented as a demonstration lab. written for an education journal. Cite anything that is not your original work (usually the text or Napolitano’s notes, but occasionally you will need to look up the source of something I have posted.)

Method – Document the apparatus and procedures. Drawings and photos can be useful here. They don’t have to be fancy and it is OK to copy them from the course materials.

Analysis - Describe the steps in your data analysis. At the end describe how you estimated the statistical and systematic uncertainties (“errors”) for your intermediate and final results. If there is more than one source of error a table must be included to document the individual contributions as well as the combined uncertainty. If one source of error dominates your results then it is OK to neglect the others, but they still must be documented. Graphs are usually essential here. They should include error bars and fitted curves as appropriate. Important equations should also be included and cited. I recommend that you write this section first.

Results – Only words. In a few paragraphs summarize your results and compare with published or accepted values. If there is no numerical result to compare with then make a qualitative assessment based on the object, material, or system being studied (i.e. verify that your answer makes sense). If you confirm the published work then say that. If you do not, then your only choices are either to explain why the accepted value is probably wrong (not likely) or speculate why your analysis could be suspect, or repeat your experiment to look for mistakes (don’t forget to document this in your notebook). The latter is your best path but if there isn’t time then an honest evaluation of your work is the next best. Never adjust your data to give an answer that you want! That is scientific fraud and it is serious business. A single instance of fraud will result in a failing grade for the course. Don’t forget to include citations. I recommend that you write this section second, after writing “analysis”.

Keep electronic copies of your reports (Back them up on CD as you go!!). When you submit your last report I will collect the CDs for my archives. Any missing reports will be assigned a grade of zero at that time!!

Grading:

Your course grade will be determined solely by your reports and lab books. These will be graded as follows:

Notebooks – 33%

These should be complete and easily read. All experiment content should be documented. You will lose points for sloppy work.

Report content – 33%

The guideline is that the information one would need to repeat your experiment or to evaluate your results should be documented, including the apparatus, method of analysis, and uncertainties. Details should be included but you must stay within the page limits.

Report style – 33%

It is not easy to write a clear, concise report that is easy to read so revise the text as needed. Here are a couple of famous papers ( , ). Read them to get an idea of how Physics papers are written.

Each lab report should be placed in the designated location in SC3C14 at the beginning of class on the day a new experiment begins. You will be penalized 5% for submitting a report after noon but before 5pm, 10% if submitted by noon the following day, and 30% if submitted by noon of the following weekly class. No reports may be submitted more than a week late.